One of Taiwan’s leading basketball teams has applied to join China’s professional league as improving ties between the two sides spill over into sports, -Taipei-based media said yesterday.
The Taiwan Beer side, championship winners in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 and sponsored by state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp, aims to play in China’s CBA as early as next year, the Chinese-language United Evening News said.
In recent years, several top Taiwanese players have been lured to Chinese teams by large financial offers, and Taiwan Beer’s head coach Richard Yan has said that his team should instead directly tap into China’s vast market.
Basketball — both the US’ NBA and the homegrown game — is wildly popular in China, with as many as 450 million Chinese regularly watching NBA matches on television and dozens of US players in the country’s professional leagues.
The move would also be a sporting demonstration of closer links between the two sides.
Taiwan Beer was launched in China last year following a decade-long effort to win approval. Having the team playing in the CBA would help promote the company’s image, the newspaper said.
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